


Save Me From Myself

by GalahadWilder



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akumatized Adrien Agreste, Established Relationship, F/M, Post Reveal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-12 05:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder
Summary: Chat Noir has been Akumatized into Chat Blanc and kidnapped Marinette—but Blanc isn't fully in control. How is Marinette going to keep her boyfriend sane enough to rescue him without revealing to Hawkmoth who she really is?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MewWitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MewWitch/gifts).

> Prompt:  
"Stop struggling Princess, I won't let anything happen to you," the Akumatized Cat reassured. "I just need your here to help me convince Ladybug to hand over her Miraculous."

Chat Noir had always been good at communicating through subtext; apparently so was Chat Blanc. Those two sentences told Marinette a number of very important things. 

First: Akumatized or not, it was Noir, not Blanc, that was in control. She relaxed into his trembling grip, into his chest, as the winds atop the Eiffel Tower buffeting her hair around her face. _I won’t let anything happen to you, _he’d said, and he’d meant it—possessed by rage or no, he’d sooner have ripped his own heart out than let her fall. His claws hovered over her skin, refusing to touch. She knew she could trust him, and so she did.

The second thing was bigger. Much bigger.

_I just need your here to help me convince Ladybug to had over her Miraculous_, he’d said, conspicuously referring to Marinette and Ladybug as separate people when he knew damn well they were the same. Even with his thoughts, his very soul, twisted, Adrien’s loyalty to her was incorruptible. _He doesn’t know who you are_, he was telling her. _He can’t read my thoughts and I’ve told him nothing._

_Help me._

She hadn’t had time to grab Trixx. Couldn’t transform in front of Adrien—they didn’t know how wired into Chat Blanc’s senses Hawkmoth was. As long as Chat could convince Hawkmoth that Marinette could bring Ladybug to him, and as long as Marinette could keep Chat Blanc’s attention—and his sanity—he wasn’t a danger. Couldn’t hurt anyone but her, and _wouldn’t_ hurt her.

She reached up, brushed her fingers along his cheek, and he whimpered. “Don’t worry, Chat,” she whispered. _I’ll get us out of this._

The only problem was how.

* * *

“_Gyah!_” Alya screamed, pounding raw, bloody knuckles into the stonework at the base of the Eiffel Tower. She pulled back her hand, feeling nothing, as blood dripped down to the stone below. “Where _is_ she?”

“She’ll be here soon,” Nino said, his gaze flicking nervously across the skyline. “That’s her partner, right? She’s—she’s gotta be.”

“It’s been an _hour_,” Alya snarled. “An hour since Chat Blanc _kidnapped our friend,_ and nobody’s seen _hide nor hair_ of Ladybug in that entire time.” She pulled on the collar of her shirt, looking down, as if the Fox Miraculous could have somehow appeared around her neck without her noticing since the last time she checked, about forty seconds ago. “God damn it!”

“She’ll be here,” Nino said. He stared up at the specks of their friend and her captor on the top of the tower, picking at a hangnail that she knew he didn’t have. “She always is—she’s gotta be, right?”

“What if she’s—” Alya’s voice broke. “What if she’s not?”

“Then I suppose,” said an older, accented voice, “she’ll need your help.”

Both of them jerked around to see a small Chinese man in a Hawaiian Oxford standing just behind them. He wore cargo shorts, sandals, an inscrutable smile—and Nino’s Miraculous.

“Who are you?” Alya said, eyes narrowing.

“I am…” The man tilted his head quizzically. “Ladybug’s mentor.” He held up a hand, with a familiar octagonal box. “And she needs you.”

Alya’s stomach slammed into her solar plexus as Nino stumbled backward in shock. “Where is she?” Alya gasped. “Is she okay?”

The old man shook his head. “Her partner has been captured,” he said. “Which means we’re one step away from losing.” He hung his head. “I had to _beg_ her to stay hidden, lest she lose her Miraculous as well.” He sighed. “So no. She’s not.”

* * *

“You’ve got this,” Marinette murmured, stroking Chat’s face. “Keep it together. You’re gonna be okay.”

Chat whimpered as the neon violet mask pulsed across his face. “_He won’t stop_,” he moaned. “Princess—it _hurts_.”

She pressed her fingertips into his scalp and began to scratch. He purred, but it cut as the neon mask pulsed, burned hot against his face. Sizzled.

“_No_,” he gasped. “I’m not leaving her here!” He shook his head. “I swear, she’s coming, she’ll be here—no, no, no—don’t make me hurt her, I won’t, I _won’t_—”

The familiar whizz-crack of Ladybug’s yo-yo striking metal.

Chat Blanc’s head whipped around as Ladybug vaulted up the side of the tower, charging towards them. He turned, met Marinette’s eyes.

_Rena_.

She nodded. _Go_.

Chat launched himself to his feet and flung himself into space, plummeting toward the Ladybug Mirage.

* * *

Rena grimaced as she saw the white blur of Chat Blanc swan dive off the Eiffel Tower, leaving Marinette alone and unprotected—the struts were not a place for an unarmored civilian. She hated this plan, but it was all they had.

As Chat fell, like a pulley, a green figure rose up the opposite side of the tower. Carapace bounced upward, launching himself off each strut toward Marinette.

The Ladybug mirage leaped sideways, narrowly dodging Chat Blanc’s claws and blowing the whole charade. Chat spun in midair, throwing up his hands and catching himself on one of the struts, then unholstered his baton and fired it upwards. The Ladybug mirage backflipped away from the tower, rappelling downward on her yo-yo as Carapace grabbed onto Marinette and pulled her upwards toward the observation deck.

* * *

The elevator dinged open at the base of the tower, and Marinette rushed out, immediately looking upward. The Ladybug mirage had vanished—five minutes. Rena had probably been forced to detransform already, leaving Carapace all alone against the ferocity of Chat Blanc. Without Marinette there, Chat Noir seemed to have lost all ability to hold Blanc back.

Carapace was losing ground. A temporary hero facing an experienced fighter, filled to the brim with killing intent? No contest at all.

She brushed her hair aside, clearing Tikki a path to her earrings and ducking behind the stone base of the tower. “Don’t worry, Kitty,” she murmured. “I’ll fix this. Tikki—!”

A superstrong arm in orange and black wrapped around her waist, and suddenly she was in midair halfway across the street. “Sorry!” Rena said as they bounded to a stop on a nearby rooftop. “Had to get you clear.” She let go of Marinette, brushing down the arms of her jacket. “Do you know why the Akuma was coming for you?”

Marinette growled. This was _not_ the _time_—! “No,” she said. “I’ve got no idea.”

Rena glanced back to the tower. “Dammit. Okay,” she said. “Gotta go. Can you get down from here on your own?”

Marinette nodded, and then Rena was gone.

* * *

Fighting Chat Blanc—without Ladybug, no less—was absolute hell. Destruction incarnate, unrestrained by Chat Noir’s gentleness, faster and more vicious than any Akuma they’d ever seen.

“You can’t hide in there for long,” Chat snarled as Carapace slumped behind the glowing honeycomb of his Shellter.

“Don’t do this,” Rena whispered.

Chat bared his fangs. “You can’t stop me.” He raised his hand. “_Cataclysm!” _A violet-black flame coalesced in his palm, like a corrupted version of his usual destructive power.

_What happens when Cataclysm touches Shellter?_ Rena thought, sweating. “I’m sorry, Ladybug.”

“Somebody say my name?”

Wire wrapped around Chat’s wrist, yanking his Cataclysm away from the wall of Carapace’s shield. At the other end of the wire stood Ladybug, hand on one hip, smug grin on her face.

“Ladybug,” Rena gasped in relief.

“Ladybug!” Chat cried in what sounded shockingly like delight. Then Hawkmoth’s lightning-bolt mask flared over his face, and he grabbed his temple and began to scream.

* * *

Chat swung his hand at Ladybug.

“Nnnnnnope,” she said, limboing under his arm just like she’d done during Dark Cupid. She launched herself onto her feet, flipping forward onto the wall across the street and sticking to the window. “Come get me, Kitty!”

“Stop it!” he screamed, charging toward her Cataclysm-first, his face twisted in fear. “Run, dammit! _Get away from me!_”

“Not on your life,” she said, flipping herself up the wall just ahead of his claw, which closed on empty air.

“Please!” he cried, frozen, his hand shaking. “I can’t protect you from me!”

“No,” she said, nodding. “But _they_ can.”

Chat Blanc turned to see a crowd of Ladybugs, smiling and waving at him.

“Oh God,” he said as Ladybug flipped over him, disappearing into the crowd. “I can’t tell if I’m in heaven or hell.”

Ladybug snorted, lost amidst a swarm of illusions of herself. Ah, Timebreaker.

All the Ladybugs charged him at once.

Chat Blanc screamed, sobbing, trying not to swing at any of them—for all he knew, any could be the real one. She, meanwhile, hung back, watching, trying to figure out where the Akuma had landed. It definitely wasn’t his ring—he wasn’t actually wearing it right now. That left…

“Now!” she yelled, and Carapace leaped out from the alley, slinging his shield at the back of Chat Blanc’s neck. It _whonged_ off his spine, stunning him—

And Ladybug leaped forward, wrapped her fingers around the bell at his throat, and yanked him in to lock lips. He melted into her, mewling, and she pulled the bell away from his throat, crushing it in her fingers.

The metal melted, turning to the blue knitted fabric of Adrien’s favorite scarf before it even hit the ground.

* * *

“You can’t tell _anyone_,” Adrien said to Carapace, leaning onto his friend’s shoulders. The Akuma fight had taken a lot out of him, and he may not have remembered much but catching him up on what he’d done didn’t seem to be great for his emotional state.

“Course, bro,” Carapace said. “Do you, uh…”

Adrien sighed. “Yeah, Nino,” he said. “I know it’s you.”

“Uh, right,” Nino said, pushing back his hood and scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry about the, uh, hitting you with the shield.”

Rena chuckled.

“It’s fine, Nino,” Adrien said. “Promise.” He turned to Ladybug. “Sorry for trying to kill you.”

“It’s fine, sweetie,” Ladybug said. “You were actually trying really hard _not_ to, anyway.”

Rena raised an eyebrow. “Man, even when you’re Akumatized, you’re still shameless in love with—wait.” She scowled. “Aren’t you dating Marinette?”

“Open relationship,” Ladybug and Adrien said simultaneously.

Rena narrowed her eyes, then shrugged.

Ladybug turned to her boyfriend. “Why _did_ you get Akumatized, anyway?”

Adrien closed his eyes, breathed in, then out. “I know who Hawkmoth is,” he said. “And… My Lady?” He opened his eyes, locked gaze with her. “You’re not gonna like it.”


	2. Chapter 2

"Well," Rena said, cradling her hand as they jumped to the next rooftop. "I guess that explains why he always went after our class." Now, out of combat, Ladybug could see the weakness of her grip on her flute, like the knuckles were too stiff to close. Her right glove was slightly darker than her left, too. Had she fractured her hand fighting Chat Blanc? When had she had time?

They came up on the Agreste Manor sooner than expected, all halting right up on the edge of the building, looking down at the front gates. Chat grabbed Rena's shoulder, yanking her down. "Cameras," he hissed.

Ladybug and Carapace immediately followed suit, dropping to their bellies on the rooftop.

Carapace's eyelid twitched beneath his goggles, and he blew a breath upward that ruffled the front of his hood. "You don't think—"

"He was trying to keep me home?" Chat said, crouched, catlike, staring at his home, which was looking increasingly sinister in the Paris twilight. "I wouldn't put it past him." For Chat, and for Adrien, intense emotion always translated into more feline body language—he purred when happy, kneaded when sad, and headbutted when lonely. Despite his calm tone, Ladybug could tell her boyfriend was one step below burning down his entire house just to get at the man inside.

Carapace growled. "I'm gonna kill him," he said, rolling slightly so he could reach and adjust the shield on his arm.

"No," Ladybug said before she could stop herself.

Everyone turned to look at her, with Rena even bending her entire torso like a worm just to narrow her eyebrows in confusion. All of them wore the same expression—gobsmacked.

"LB," Rena said, "I know you're all about forgiving people, but—"

"No," Ladybug repeated, her voice dripping with venom. She slid her knees in under her chest, inching toward the edge of the building, narrowing her eyes at the base of the man she now hated twice over—once for what he'd done to Paris, and once for what he'd done to his son. "He doesn't deserve an easy out. I am going to make him _live_."

Rena shivered. "I take it back," she whispered. "That the most _terrifying_ thing I've ever heard you say."

Ladybug set her jaw and nodded. "Can your fingers move enough to play your flute?"

"Not well," Rena said. "Can't you just—"

Ladybug shook her head. "The cure will let him know we're coming," she said. "He may know we beat Chat Blanc, but as long as he doesn't see the swarm we have a chance to take him off balance." She reached out and carefully placed her hand on Rena's _other_ shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said. "We need surprise." She turned to her partner. "Does he know you're Chat Noir?"

Chat gritted his teeth. "No idea," he said. "I didn't even make it out of the house before the butterfly got me." He stopped for a moment as Carapace glanced at him in horror, then continued: "I don't know whether _he_ picked Blanc or I did."

"Chloé was Antibug," Rena said.

"Chloé was pissed at me specifically," Ladybug said. "Adrien didn't have that excuse." She sighed. They were in no way prepared for this—they were going to walk in and fail and die and... she shook her head. "We're going in a little bit blind and we've only got one shot. We _cannot_ afford to lose."

There was a padding of feet on the roof behind them, then a slithering body, and Ladybug grinned, dropping her head in relief. "Which is why I had Master Fu call in some backup," she said, trying to hide her rush of breath as her anxiety just... released.

"Hey guys," said a calm, almost musical voice behind them. "Where's the Akuma?"

She twisted briefly to catch a glimpse of blue hair atop a green mask.

"Viperion!" Chat cried, shifting. "Man, it's great to see you!"

Carapace smiled and held out a fist. "Haven't seen you since the house party, dude," he said, grinning as Viperion bumped his fist. "Have you met Rena?"

Viperion grinned. "Not yet, but I've heard a lot from the Lady," he said, holding out his hand. "Nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise!" Rena said. She held out her hand, then hissed as the ligaments tugged on her fractured bones.

"Babe!" Carapace cried as she yanked her arm back and tucked it into her chest.

"I'm okay," she whispered, blinking away tears.

Ladybug chewed her lip. _Sorry, Rena_, she thought. _I'd fix it if I could, but... need to stay on topic. _"Glad you could make it, Viperion," she said, turning back to the mansion. Which window gave them the best entry point? Hawkmoth would be expecting them to come through Adrien's room, or his office, so both of those were out. "Did Fu say how long until Bee gets here?"

"Forty minutes, give or take," he said. "Hotel security is tight, so..."

Ladybug gritted her teeth. "Too long," she said. "We'll have to do this without Venom." Not ideal—she'd been counting on being able to immobilize Hawkmoth. Without Pollen... she wasn't sure how well this would work.

"You got a plan?" Carapace said.

Chat snorted. "She _always_ has a plan."

Ladybug licked her lips. "V, you're on overwatch." She rolled over to meet his eyes. "Stay at a distance, direct our tactics. Use Second Chance as many times as you need to to see what works. If Hawkmoth even gets _close_ to you, activate it, _even if we're winning_." She grabbed his arm, held up his wrist. "If he gets his hands on Sass, _we lose_." She turned to the rest of the team. “Viperion’s in command. _When_ he contradicts my orders—and he _will—_listen to him over me.”

"Seriously," Viperion said. "What's going on? Did you say _Hawkmoth?_"

"We found him," Chat said, nodding toward the mansion.

Viperion's eyes boggled. "You're kidding—Agreste?" He swallowed, shook his head. "Oh, man... poor Adrien."

"Poor Mari, too," Rena said. "She really looked up to that man."

"Not for a long while," Ladybug growled under her breath.

Everyone was silent for a moment, and Ladybug realized they'd heard her. _Aw, dammit._

Rena cleared her throat. "No wonder you didn't show up when she got kidnapped."

Carapace snorted. "Open relationship my ass."

"Can we _focus_, please?" Ladybug snapped. "We're—we've gotta—" Oh God. This was—there was no way they could win this, was there? She was leading her friends to their deaths. They trusted her, and, and she was going to fail them, they were all going to—

Chat wrapped his fingers around hers and squeezed, and she breathed in. _Keep it together._

”Chat, gimme an entrance,” she said. “Somewhere he won’t expect.”

Chat pursed his lips, peered over the edge. "I got an idea," he said. "We get on _top_ of the mansion, and I Cataclysm our way through the roof. Father will never see it coming—"

"You'll only have five minutes."

Chat nodded at Viperion. "We're only planning on needing five minutes anyway."

She stared at him, then grabbed his face and pulled it into hers. "I love you," she whispered.

He grinned, swaying a bit. "I should be smart more often."

Ladybug nodded. “Okay,” she said, making her way to her feet. She wasn’t ready for this. "Into hell, one last time."

Viperion nodded, held out a fist. "Into hell," he said.

Chat laid his hand on top of Viperion's green glove. "Into hell."

Carapace and Rena added their hands to the stack. "Into hell," they said in unison.

Ladybug smiled, wiped away tears, and placed her hand onto her teams'. "For Paris," she said.

_We're coming for you, Gabriel, _she thought. _You'd best hope you're ready._


End file.
